add this passage of Origen, "Let us represent as fully as we are able what constitutes heresy. He is a heretic who has false notions about our Lord Jesus Christ. Such is deny that he was the first-born, the God of every creature, the word, the wisdom, the beginning of the ways of God," formed from the beginning, or ever the world was, begotten before the mountains and hills,"* Prov. viii.

5. The fathers of the three centuries made an invariable profession of adoring but one God. This was, as it were, the first distinct character of their religion. Yet the primitive Christians adored Jesus Christ; witness Pliny's letter, which says, "" they sang hymns to Jesus Christ as to a God." Witness Justin Martyr, who, in his Apology to Antoninus, expressly says, "Christians religiously worship Father, Son, and Spirit." And in the same apology he assures us, that "the constant doctrine of Christians, which they received from Jesus Christ himself, was the adoration of one only God." Witness that famous letter of the faithful at Smyrna, whom the heathens accused of paying divine honours to Polycarp. "It is impossible," say these believers, "that we should abandon Jesus Christ, or worship any other but him. We worship Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God: but in regard to the martyrs, disciples of Christ, and imitators of his virtues, we respect them for their invincible love to their Master and King." Hence it was, that Paul of Samoseta, who denied the divinity of Christ, would not allow the custom of singing hymns to his honour: and Eusebius uses this argument to prove the doctrine that we are maintaining: "The psalms and hymns," says he, "composed a long time ago by the faithful, do they not proclaim, that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, that he is God?"

6. Finally, Among numberless passages in the fathers, which attest the truth in question, there are some so clear and so express, that we ourselves, who would prove their faith in our Saviour's divinity, cannot dictate terms more emphatical than those which they have used. Weigh these words of Tertullian. "Jesus Christ had the substance of the human nature, and the substance of the divine nature; on which account we say, he had a beginning, and he had no beginning; he was natural and spiritual; weak and powerful; mortal and immortal; properties (adds this father) which distinguish his human and divine nature." Weigh these words of the same Tertullian. "We have been taught that God brought forth that Spirit, which we call the Word, that God by bringing him forth begat him, that for this reason he is called the Son of God, because his substance and the substance of God is one and the same substance; as a ray proceeding from the body of the sun, receives a part of its light without diminishing the light of the sun, so in the generation of the word, spirit is derived of spirit, and God of God. As the light of a flambeau derived from another does not at all diminish the light whence it is taken, so it is

Apol. Pamph. Mart. in the 4th vol. of St. Jerome's works. Edit. Froben. † Lib. 10. Epist. 97. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. book 7. chap. 30. book 5. chap. 28. Tertul. de Carne Christi.

with God. That which proceeds from him is God, both God and Son of God, one with the Father, and the Father with him. It follows, that this distinction of spirit from spirit, of God from God, is not in substance but in person." Weigh again these words of Hyppolitus the martyr. "Thou art he, who existett. always. Thou art with the Father without beginning, and eternal as well as the Holy Spirit." Again, weigh these words of Origen. In examining what doctrines are necessary to salvation, he puts this in the first class: "Jesus Christ, who, being God, became incarnate, did not cease to be God." Again, weigh these of Justin Martyr. They call us Atheists, because we do not adore their demons. We grant we are such in regard to their gods: but not in regard to the true God, with whom we honour and worship the Son."§ Finally, weigh these of Pope Felix. "We believe, Jesus Christ the Word is the eternal Son of God."||

No part of our discourse would bear a greater enlargement than this. Literally speaking, the subject exemplified from the fathers would fill a large volume. We have abridged the matter. Let us finish with a few reflections of another kind in our text.

We have endeavoured to prove, that Jesus Christ is supremely adorable, and supremely adored. Christians, what idea do you form of this doctrine? Do we think, we have done all that this doctrine engages us to do, when we have signalized our zeal by affirming and defending it? Shall we be of that number of extravagant people, who, having established the truth with warmth; sometimes with wrath (placing their passions to the account of religion) imagine, they have thereby acquired a right of refusing to Jesus Christ that unlimited obedience which so directly follows the doctrine of his divinity? The sacred authors, whom we have followed in proving this doctrine, draw very different consequences from it. They use it to inflame our love for a God, who “so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son," John iii. 16. They use it to clevate us to the sublimest hopes, declaring it impossible for him "who gave his own Son, not to give us all things freely with him," Rom. iii. 31. They use it to enforce every virtue, particularly humility, a virtue essential to a Christian; and when order requires it, to sacrifice the titles of Noble Sovereign, Potentate, Monarch, after the example of this God-man, who "being in the form of God, and counting it no robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself,” Phil. ii. 6. They use it to exalt the evangelical dispensation above the Mosaical economy, and the superiority of the former to prove, that piety should be carried to a more eminent degree now than formerly; for God, "who spake to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son," Heb. i. 1 They use it to prove, that the condition of a wicked Christian would be infinitely worse after this life than that of a wicked Jew; for "if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every

* Tertul. adv. Gen. Apol. cap. 21.
Bibl. Patr. tom. 12.
Origen cont. Cels. lib. 5.
Just. Mart. Apel. 2.
Cone. Ephes. act. I

Is so vitiated and depraved. I am aware, that nothing is less subject to our decisions than taste. I am aware, that what is delicious to one is disgustful to another, and, as it would be stupid to expect a subiime spirit should take pleasure in the gross occupations of a mechanic, so it would be unjust to expect that a mechanic should be pleased with the noble speculations of a sublime genius. I know, the difference between us and these intelligences is such as not to allow our pleasures to be of the same kind. But, after all, is this difference so great as to make such a disproportion in our delights? Do we not aspire to divine happiness as well as they? And if the flesh, which covers that spiritual substance, that animates us, places us so far beneath them, is not the honour, which this flesh has received by the incarnation of the Word, who "took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham," Heb. ii. 16, is not this more than enough to remove the prodigious distance, which the sublimity of their essence puts between us and them? at least, should it not make us lament the depravity of our taste, if it be not sufficient perfectly to restore it? Christians, the plan of our evangelical felicity is founded on that of celestial felicity. Christians are called, even here below, to taste those noble pleasures, which are so delightful to the blessed above. Let us feel these pleasures, my brethren. Let us feel the pleasure of rendering to God the homage of the mind. Let us soar into a sublime meditation of his essence. Of his perfections let us form the most elevated ideas, that our diminutive capacities can permit. Let us conceive, as far as we possibly can, a wise God, supremely powerful, supremely holy, supremely good. Let us associate his glorious attribute, and, judging by the splendour of these feeble rays, of some of the beauties of the original, let us adore this Great Supreme. Let us feel the pleasure of rendering to God the homage of the heart. Let us measure the dimensions of love divine. Let us lose ourselves in the "length, in the breadth, in the height, in the depth of that love, which passeth knowledge," Eph. iii.

18.

Let us conceive the inexpressible felicity of an intimate union with the happy God, 1 Tim. vi. 15. Let us reflect on the happiness of a creature, who has a relation of love to a God, who knows how to love with so much extent, with so much pity, with so much power. Let us feel the pleasure of rendering to God the homage of an entire devotedness, the submission of all our desires. Slaves of the

world, let us free ourselves from sensuality and cupidity, let us shake off the yoke of these domineering passions, let us submit ourselves to God," James iv. 7. Thus let us taste the felicity of returning to order, of obeying that God, all whose commands enforce love to what is supremely lovely.

thou also, deceitful "fashion of the world,"** thou shalt presently pass away! 1 Cor. vii. 31 presently these auditors, who have endeavoured to approach nearest to angelical pleasures, shah approach them entirely. Shortly this flock shall be numbered with the " twenty thousand times ten thousand." Presently the voices, which have made these walls resound the Creator's praise, shall sing it in a nobler manner, and shall make the heavenly arches echo the hymn in my text, Worthy is the Lamb to receive honour, power, riches, wisdoin, strength, glory, and blessing." To him, that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honour, and glory, for ever and Amen.

ever.

SERMON XXXIII.

CHRIST THE SUBSTANCE OF THE ANCIENT SACRIFICE OF THE LAW.

HEBREWS X. 5—7.

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not: but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure: then said I, lo! I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. To take Jesus Christ for our Redeemer and for our example is an abridgment of religion, and the only way to heaven.

If Jesus Christ be not taken for our Redeemer, alas! how can we bear the looks of a God," who is of purer eyes than to behold evil" Heb. i. 13. How can we hope to please with prayers debased by numberless imperfections; with a repentance, in which a regret for not daring to repeat a crime too often mixes with a sorrow for having committed it; with a love of which self-interest is always the first spring; how, I say, can we hope with our sinful services to please a God, before whom seraphim veil their faces, and in whose sight the heavens themselves are unclean?

If we do not take Jesus Christ for our exam

ple, with what face can we take him for our Redeemer? Should we make the mysteries of religion mysteries of iniquity? Should we wish, that he, who came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the devil, would reestablish them, in order to fill up the communion with this wicked spirit that void, which communion with Christ leaves? But to take Jesus Christ for a Redeemer and to take him for a model, is to unite all that can procure our supreme felicity; it is, as I said before, an abridgment of religion, and the only way to heaven.

In these two points of light St. Paul presents our divine Saviour to the view of the Hebrews, in this chapter, from which we have taken the text, and in some following chapters. It was necessary to convince men, educated in Judaism, new converts to Christianity, and greatly prejudiced in favour of the magnificence of the Levitical service, that the most pompous

* 1 Cor. vii. 31. Fashion of this world. TO CHAN TOU XOOMOU TOUTOU Locutio a theatro et scenis desumpta,

trompeur.

>ther prophecies, which indisputably belong to the Messiah. I mean particularly the sixtyninth Psalm, and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Were not the expositions of fallible men grounded on the testimonies of infallible writers, the nature of the thing would oblige us to admit the application. In whose mouth, except in that of the Messiah, could David, with so much reason, have put these words? "For thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face," Ps. lxix. 7. Of whom could Isaiah so justly say as of the Messiah, "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," chap. liii. 5, 6. Now, if you put the chapter and the psalm, which we have quoted, among prophecies of the Messiah, you will find no difficulty in adding the psalm, from which our text is taken, because they need only to be compared to prove that they speak of the same subject.

Over and above the evidence, that arises from the object, we have the evidence of testimony. St. Paul declares, that the words of the Psalmist are a prophecy, and that the mystery of the incarnation was the accomplishment of it. After a decision so respectable, it ill becomes us to reply.

I very well know what the enemies of our mysteries say against this reasoning, and against all our arguments of this kind by which we have usually derived the mysteries of the gospel from the writings of the prophets. Jesus Christ, say they, and his apostles reasoned from the prophecies only for the sake of accommodating themselves to the genius of the Jews, who were always fond of finding mysteries in the writings of their sacred authors, even in the most simple parts of them. What you take, continue they, for explications of prophecies in the writers of the New Testament, are only ingenious applications, or more properly, say they, accommodations. But what! when Philip joined himself to the Ethiopian treasurer, who was reading the fifty-third of Isaiah, and who put this question to him, "I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself, or of some other man?" When he began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus," Acts viii. 34, 35, did he mean only to accommodate himself to the genius of the Jewish nation? What! when St. Matthew, speaking of John the Baptist, said, "This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness," chap. iii. 3, and when John the Baptist, in answer to those questions, which the Jews, whom the priests sent, put to him, "Who art thou? Art thou Elias? Art thou that prophet?" When he replied, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness," John i. 19. 21. 23, did he mean only to accommodate himself to the prejudices of the Jews? What! when Jesus Christ after his resurrection taxed his disciples with folly, because they had not discovered his resurrection in the ancient prophecies: and when, "beginning at Moses, and Il the prophets," he derived from thence argu

ments to prove that Christ "ought to have suffered, and to enter into his glory," Luke xxiv. 25-27, had he no other design than that of making ingenious applications, and of accommodating himself to the prejudices of the Jewish nation? And is this the design of St Paul in my text? Hear how he speaks, how he reasons, how he concludes. "It is not possible, says he, that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure; then said I, lo! I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God!" Having said before, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not," which things are appointed by the law, he adds, "Lo! I come to do thy will, O God! He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Do people speak in this manner, when they make only ingenious applications, and when reasoning is carried on by dexterity and accommodation?

Audacious heresy, my brethren! which having first offered violence to the expressions of the prophets, proceeds to offer violence again to the decisions of the evangelists, and apos tles, the interpreters of the prophets; and with equal presumption contradicts a prophecy, and an interpretation as infallible as prophecy itself! There is great simplicity, I allow, in a turn for the marvellous, and in obliging one's self to find the Messiah in the most unlikely passages in the prophecies: but there is also a great deal of obstinacy in denying demonstrations so palpable and plain.

The words of my text are then a quotation, and, we think, we have justified it. We are now to consider it, secondly, as a difficult passage, that needs elucidation.

The principal difficulty in my present view is in these words, "A body hast thou prepared me." The Hebrew has it, thou hast dug, bored, or opened my ears. The expression is figurative: but it is very intelligible even to those who are but little acquainted with sacred history. None of you can be ignorant, that it is an allusion to a law recorded in the twentyfirst chapter of Exodus, where they, who had Hebrew slaves, were ordered to release them in the sabbatical year. A provision is made for such slaves as refused to accept of this privilege. Their masters were to bring them to the doors of their houses, to bore their ears through with an awl, and they were to engage to continue slaves for ever, that is to say, till the year of Jubilee, or till their death, if they happened to die before that festival. As this action was expressive of the most entire devotedness of a slave to his master, it was very natural for the prophet to make it an emblem of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ to his Father's will. A passage of our Apostle exactly agrees with these words of the prophet. "Jesus Christ made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of